So I’m sitting here trying to write this and honestly, I don’t even know where to start.
My wife told me I should write about why storage units are the sizes they are. She said people probably wonder about that. I said do they though? She gave me the look. You know the look. So here we are.
I’ve been running this storage place for about 8 years now. Before that I worked construction. Not building storage units though. I built houses. Which is actually kind of funny because houses don’t make any sense either if you think about it. Why are bedrooms always 12×12? Who decided that? I don’t know. Nobody knows. It’s just how it’s done.
Anyway.
The truck thing
So the other day this guy comes in. Needs a unit for his mom’s stuff. She’s moving into a smaller place. He’s got a U-Haul parked outside. One of those 15 foot ones.
He says I need a unit that fits all this. I say 10×15 should do it. He goes how do you know. I say because your truck is 15 feet long. He just looks at me. Then he looks at the truck. Then back at me. He goes huh.
That’s really all it is.
Back when storage first became a thing someone smart realized people show up in trucks. Those trucks have sizes. Make the units the same sizes. Now you don’t have to repack anything. You just open both doors and push.
I didn’t figure this out myself by the way. My dad told me. He’s been in storage since the 80s. He knows all kinds of random stuff like this. Most of it I forget because he talks a lot but the truck thing stuck.
The door thing
You ever try to move a refrigerator?
I did once. Never again. Those things are heavy and awkward and they hate doorframes.
Storage unit doors are wider than house doors because of refrigerators and couches and mattresses. That’s literally it. Someone somewhere moved a couch into a unit that was too narrow and said this sucks let’s make them wider.
Your front door at home is maybe 36 inches. Storage unit doors are usually 48 or more. Gives you room to maneuver. You can walk straight in without having to tilt stuff and scrape the walls.
We have these little marks on our doorframes at [Your Business Name Here] from people who didn’t realize how wide their stuff was. Battle scars. Every single one is someone’s moving day struggle.
The height thing nobody thinks about
Here’s something I notice all the time.
Someone walks into a 5×5 and goes this is too small. I say look up. They look up. Oh. Yeah.
Most storage units have 9 or 10 foot ceilings. Your house probably has 8. So you can actually fit more in here than you think because you can stack.
People forget stacking is a thing. We live in houses where we spread stuff out so we forget you can put boxes on top of boxes. The people who designed these units didn’t forget. They built them tall on purpose.
I had a lady once who stored her whole apartment in a 5×10. I thought no way. She showed me. Boxes stacked to the ceiling. Furniture standing on end. She used every inch. She was like a storage ninja.
The car thing
We get a lot of people storing cars.
Classic cars mostly. Guys who have a project car and no garage space. Or people going overseas for a year and don’t want to sell their car.
The sizes work for cars because cars fit in parking spots. A parking spot is about 9×18. A 10×20 unit is actually bigger than a parking spot. Plenty of room to open doors and walk around.
One guy stored his boat with us for a whole winter. Came back in spring and it started right up. He was so happy he brought us donuts. Best tip I ever got. Donuts are better than money honestly.
Why not make them all the same size
Someone asked me this once. Why not just build everything huge so people have extra room.
I said you want to pay for extra room you don’t need? He thought about it and said no.
That’s really the answer. You don’t want to pay for space you’re not using. If you need a closet you shouldn’t have to rent a garage. The different sizes let you pick exactly what you need.
Also if everything was huge you’d have to walk forever to get to your stuff. The building would be a maze. You’d need a map and good shoes. Nobody wants that.
At County Line Storage we have all the sizes because we want you to pay for what you actually need. Not more. Not less. Just what fits your stuff.
How I explain it to people
When someone comes in and doesn’t know what size they need I ask them what they’re storing.
If they say boxes and some furniture from a bedroom I say 10×10. If they say whole apartment I say 10×15 or 10×20 depending. If they say just boxes I say 5×5 or 5×10.
Nine times out of ten I’m right. The other time they need to size up or down. No big deal. We just move them. Happens all the time.
People always underestimate their kitchen table for some reason. I don’t know why. Tables are big. Everyone knows tables are big. But every time someone says oh it’s just a small table and then it doesn’t fit. Every single time.
The truth
Look I’m not gonna pretend there’s some deep secret here.
Storage units are the sizes they are because those sizes work. People figured out over decades what fits where and they just kept doing it. 5×5 for boxes. 10×10 for bedrooms. 10×20 for houses and cars. It’s not complicated.
The truck thing is real. The door thing is real. The ceiling thing is real. Everything else is just people using stuff and seeing what works.
Come see us
Anyway, that’s all I got.
If you’re looking for storage, come by County Line Storage. We’ll walk through some units, figure out what size you need, and maybe complain about moving stuff together. Everyone’s got a moving story.
We’re open every day except holidays. Even Sundays. Because I know people move on Sundays. I’ve been there.
Got questions? Call us. We don’t bite. Well, I don’t anyway. Can’t speak for everyone.
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